Lipsy to shutter website, shifts to Next site

Many brands may be migrating online but Next-owned Lipsy announced Thursday that it will close its website as of January.

The Lipsy website will close next January The company plans to focus on its physical retail stores with online sales for the brand set to be channelled through its parent’s own site.

The company said that it had decided a year ago to focus on the UK distribution of core Lipsy Branded products through the Lipsy branded stores, and through the Lipsy.co.uk website, as well as via Next online and Asos.

This strategy appears to have been a success with UK sales of Lipsy products having “increased significantly” since then, particularly online. It said sales of Lipsy & Co 3rd party Fashion Brands including Boohoo, Quiz, Pour Moi, Pretty Little Thing, Miss Selfridge and Office have also been strong.

So why the website closure? Well it seems that “the vast majority of online sales for both Lipsy and Brands are driven through the Next website.” Shoppers visiting the Lipsy address will be redirected to the Next site, which already generates massive traffic due to Next’s strong online operations.

“We will continue to focus on accelerating the growth of Lipsy and Lipsy & Co Brands purely on Next online,” the company said, adding that there will be “limited” head office redundancies at Lipsy “where a total of 32 net new head office positions have been added over the past year.”